Full Circle

Is Euchre Spiritual? 

Several years ago, a close friend of mine in the church, Howard Hickman asked if their small group could play Euchre.  I remember being nervous about my answer.  I stated that I would prefer that they not play cards in the lobby.  Some people had problems with Christians playing cards.  He was so compliant and that was the end of that.  Now what do I believe?

Wow have I changed.  I was afraid that some serious old fashioned Christian might get offended.   I put the law (unspoken rules and regulations) on the whole group.  I actually had the whole church under the law because of my fear of people.  It sure does feel free to enjoy a great night of Christian fellowship with friends.  Friday night we met at friends for a Euchre Party.  Was the sin on the face of the King of Hearts?  Poor guy, maybe it is the joker.  Why do we put such pressure on us to do somethings and not others because of what someone would think.

Here is the take away.  When there is nothing immoral or nothing that invokes bad character, we shoud ask oursleves why something is somehow prohibited.  Let’s ask the Father what He thinks.  I have got to know some Heartlanders in the church better through Euchre than seeing them and talking to them on Sunday morning.   WOW I LOVE FREEDOM.  Let’s be open to the Holy spirit to guide us and not old fashioned rules..  OK, DEAL THE CARDS.

OK let me know what you think.   Are there any other sacred cows out there tromping down your tomato plants?

Old man, New man

Pastor Herb has been preaching on the awesome grace of God, and has enough “ammunition” to take us through the summer with this theme. Sometimes his messages make one have to respond with “ouch!”. As in “hit a nerve”.

This past week was one in which I was reminded that there is still a lot of the “old man” left in this old man.  My world is not one that easily revolves in the electronic cosmos. I lost my IPod somewhere between Missouri and home during our recent motorcycle trip. This necessitated getting a replacement, since it is my “Juke Box” on long rides. This also meant that I had to reload the almost 20 hours of music on the new IPod. Hence began the saga that opened up the old man’s nature. 

I am a very patient individual…in most cases.  But electronic stuff frustrates me.  Those electrons disappear into the ether, and are untraceable…at least to me. I had a revelation that I needed to reload ITunes on the PC to start the whole process.  In the midst of this, Microsoft started to download “updates”, which then sabotaged my pc, and it stopped responding to me. (Did I anger it, somehow)? This led to the necessity to reload my operating system onto my Dell laptop.

I said I’m technically challenged, right?  Instead of just reloading Vista, I goofed up and completely reloaded it, wiping out everything on the laptop. Once I (eventually) reloaded other programs and files back in, it stopped letting me on the net. Can we say increased frustration?

My normally patient demeanor soured into a morose, bummed out old dude, with a sour disposition. I may have rather stayed in bed, covered up my head and remained there until the rapture. What I did not need was more frustration.  What I really needed was a cart-load of grace.  Not ordinary grace, mind you, but grace right from the throne! Special dispensational grace.  The kind that covers up your naked, boorish, natural-man attitudes.

God blessed me with a great brother, with infinite understanding and tolerance for an electronic ignoramus, and pulled me out of the fire, got me on the web again, and exhibited abundant grace to me. And I was so prolifically reminded that I still have a carnal nature that is not entirely (or even maybe, a bit less than perfectly???) redeemed. 

I needed grace.  I needed reminded that grace was available, and that there are still large deposits of the “old man” lurking within this man.

Thank you Pastor Herb for bringing us to the place of remembering that we are saved, but still being saved!

Gary Leary,Assistant Pastor, Church of the Heartland Plymouth

Kids Camp

THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD:

This was a life changer. Awesome Praise and Worship, Mud slides, swimming, smores, campfires, treasure hunts, new friends, great food, made this the beginning of the best summer yet. 

 

 THROUGH THE EYES OF A COUNSELOR

 

Spending time with excited boys and girls is the best time I could have spend anywhere. To see children change before my eyes, wow. Can’t wait until next year to be a camp counselor again.

 

 FROM MY EYES 

As the leader and consultants to several pastors and leaders, this was a high point for me. Chris Miller, Church of the Heartland’s lead children and youth leader, was heading to Uganda for a mission’s trip along with 13 others including her husband and son. The mission in Uganda is centered around ministry to children and children’s pastors and leaders. This put Chris as a main speaker and missions leader. I saw a week before camp that Chris was overwhelmed so I volunteered to oversee the camp. I got to watch Leigh Anne Runkle as camp director do an excellent job. The camp was so well organized that everything went smooth with out Chris but with the people that Chris had trained. NOW THIS IS SUCCESS. If an event goes great even in the absence of the main leader.  All I did was observe a great camp.

GREAT WORK CHRIS BUT GREATER WORK TO THE TEAM THAT MADE THIS ALL POSSIBLE.

Thanks for all the great input from the cooks, musicians, counselors, directors and the wonderful kids.

I want to go next year.

Shut Up!

Yeah, that’s what the “world” seems to be saying to Christians. I’ve been noticing lately how nervous Christians are to speak the truth about abortion, homosexuality or any other “touchy” topic. I’m kinda tired of hearing about tolerance, when it seems like the only people who are NOT tolerated are Christians. Do I sound mad? Yeah I guess I am mad. I’ve had a couple of friends recently post notes discussing what the Bible says about sin, and they were blasted with hateful comments. So what do we do? Should we keep our mouths shut?

A friend just told me today that she posted a status about one of these “touchy” topics & didn’t get any comments but she posted a status about what color to dye her hair & she was flooded with comments. So I guess as long as we talk about hair color & other “important” things, that we’re ok.

I know I normally post happier notes than this. So here are my final thoughts:

I love people. Especially people who have been deceived. I only have one enemy. I refuse to shut up. I refuse to stop loving people who disagree me. I will continue to love people & tell them the truth. I’m glad that God will have the final say.

Chris Miller

Next Gen Pastor

Church of the Heartland Plymouth

Heartland United

Heartland United -Thursday April 30, May 7, and May 14, at the Plymouth campus, COTH ministries are hosting mid-week video teachings called Heartland United.  Each week a different COTH pastor will be broadcasting live from their campus or home.  Mark your calendars and plan on being part of this new avenue of reaching people through technology!  If you can’t make it to church, church will come to you.  On these dates starting at 7PM, you can watch it live on Mogulus.  Here is a link.  www.mogulus.com/churchoftheheartland   We will be using great COTH teachers with the message that is burning in their heart.  There will be time set apart for interaction and relationship, not just a message.  There will be child care and events for the children. 

This will be LIVE and you can ask questions from home or at the local churches through Mogulus.

If you need a shot of FAITH in the middle of the week, well here it is.

 

THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG

Just been pondering. Which is first RELATIONSHIP or FAITH. I know that God wants a relationship with me and I want a relationship with Him. I want to be loved by people and to love people. Can this just happen and these relationships develop? Did it start with God’s desire for relationship or did it start with His faith? I find that I can have no lasting relationship without applying faith or it goes south. My marriage relationship is great but the glue is faith. I have had times in my life where great faith was available and I was able to walk in this awesome faith but my relationship skills were not there and relationships took a hit.

Now I enjoy relationship so much that if I’m not aware and careful, my faith will dwindle. I don’t want faith that builds at the expense of relationship. I don’t want relationships that doesn’t have a Kingdom building purpose through faith.

Just pondering.

What an Easter

                                      This is a GREAT BIG THANK YOU.  First, thanks to all of you who parked in the back to make room for new guests and those unable to walk as well.  Twenty (20) cars parked behind the fence.  We still ran out of space but usaually we have only four park in the rear.  You opened up 16 spaces up front.   THANKS.  Second, I want to thank all the volunteers that served in the nursery.  Teaching, training, and controlling forty (40) preschoolers would take me over the top.  I truely appreciate your service for Christ,  To you, a great big THANKS Beth and team.  You are the best.  Third, for the workers who were in KWAM (our childrens’ church/Kids With A Mission)  Forty (40) kids from kindergarten to 5th grade.  Wow you deserve a medal and a GREAT BIG THANKS.  Thanks Chris and team.  Fourth for all twenty (20) who gave your simple but powerful testimonies on cardboard.  It brought the whole church to their feet.  Thanks for your humility and witness.  And last for all of you who helped us set a record attendance.  God love you all

THE WINAMAC HAPPENING

What a celebration we will have tomorrow night. The first Sunday in April 1987 we had our first service of Church of the Heartland. Then it was Grace Community Church and we didn’t even conceive of the idea of campuses. That has grown to 7 churches, Christian schools, daycare, coffee shops, biker churches, home extensions, and an awesome Bible College that has produced hundreds of leaders and believers. Believe me, this has been a work of God not a work of man.

22 years ago this was all a seed planted by God in my heart. The greatest of this is its ability to remain as fruit past its founders. This Good Friday and I mean good Friday, I will celebrate the beginning of another generation and the seed planted in their hearts. We the elders of GIM (Church of the Heartland) will present before God the leader for the next step. We will be celebrating the Easter Good Friday with awesome worship and commissioning Heath Hiatt for the second leg of the journey for Northern Central Indiana.

Thank you Winamac for the great start. Thank you Heartlanders for the awesome spirit you have to advance the Kingdom. Thank you elders for keeping your eyes on Jesus and not man. Thank you Heath for carrying on the dream.

Thank you Sandy for staying beside me even when times were rough. It could not have been done without you. And thank you Jesus for letting this little farm boy from Star City, Indiana be a part of Your World.

MOGULUS

MOGULUS is a free live video feed to anyone with a high speed internet connection to their computer.  Last night was a trial run for us Heartlanders by broadcasting live the Biker church service last night at 5:00 pm EST.  Several of us were logged onto http://www.mogulus.com/churchoftheheartland and watched the live worship and preaching at the COTH Biker Church.  There were 1336 viewer minutes last night.  If everyone watched the whole hour, then their were over twenty people watching the service.

What potentential does this have?  We can have live meetings for free from all our leaders including Serbia and Uganda feeds.   Every Campus could broadcast their services.   It takes very little eguipment.  All you need is a camera, computer and internet connection.

Let’s discuss the possibilities of MOGULUS.  Give me your input.

The Power of Baptism

What a Sunday!! I would appreciate a lot of feedback about the baptism service. We interviewed the eight youth who chose to publicly tell what Jesus had done in their lives. Then they were baptized on stage during the worship service. Normally we would have baptized separately but this time incorporated worship believing that the ceremony is worship to the Father.

Heartlanders, give me some feedback. What did it mean to you? Would you like to see it done this way again?